Energy Preview: Crude gives up some gains after latest uptick

MoM Team / Mumbai, Aug 28, 2017 10:00 AM IST

Crude oil futures were higher Friday on extended buying support following an extremely weak undertone in the US dollar and steady cues from equities. Falling US inventories and generally supportive commodity prices have pushed oil up in last few days. WTI Crude added around 1 percent on Friday but slipped slightly in Asia today as traders focused on after effects of the devastating Hurricane Harvey. The hurricane has hit Texas, the refinery hub of the US, stoking fears of an uptick in crude supplies as refineries are expected to shut down operations.

WTI Crude is currently trading down 0.38 percent at $47.69 per barrel. MCX Crude should see a mixed opening on these cues. The counter ended up 0.6 percent at Rs 3060 per barrel in the last session.

The latest US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data recorded an inventory draw of 3.3 million barrels for the week ending August 18th following a draw of 8.95 million barrels the previous week. Crude inventories declined to 463.2 million barrels and were down 6.0 percent on the year. This was the eight consecutive drop in US crude inventories. Cushing inventories recorded a draw of 0.50 mn barrels on the week after a build of 0.68 mn barrels the previous week.

Domestic crude production recorded a gain of 0.3 percent on the week at 9.53 mn bpd and there was an increase of 11.5 percent over the year. Gasoline inventories declined 1.2 million barrels on the week with a 1.2 percent annual decline while distillate stocks were unchanged on the month with a year-on-year decline of 3.2 percent.